First Atlantic hurricane of 2018 is here: Beryl whips up 80mph winds over the Caribbean and has Puerto Rico in its sights as island struggles to rebuild from last year’s storms
Hurricane Beryl is located over 1,000 miles east of the Lesser Antilles islands
Beryl has become first hurricane of 2018 after generating winds north of 75mph
The hurricane gained strength Friday morning and was a Category 1 storm
It is expected to hit the eastern Caribbean, threatening islands still trying to recover from last year’s storms
It is also eyeing up Puerto Rico but is currently due to pass it to the south but dump heavy rain on the area
By CONNOR BOYD
DAILYMAIL.COM
6 July 2018
The first Atlantic hurricane of 2018, Beryl, is expected to hit the eastern Caribbean, threatening islands still trying to recover from last year’s storms, forecasters said Friday.
The hurricane gained strength Friday morning and was a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of nearly 80mph (130kph), according to the National Hurricane Center. It is expected to pass near Dominica and the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique late Sunday or Monday.
Beryl is forecast to remain a hurricane as it passes south of Puerto Rico and not dissipate until it is located south of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Forecasters said the storm is expected to dump heavy rain across islands including Dominica and Puerto Rico, which could also be hit with winds of more than to 40 mph (64kph) and flooding.
‘People have to remain alert,’ Gabriel Lojero, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in San Juan, told The Associated Press. ‘The forecast could change for the better or worse.’
Dominica was hit by Hurricane Maria last year as a Category 5 storm and hasn’t fully recovered. Neither has Puerto Rico, where some 60,000 people still have a tarp as a roof and more than 1,000 customers remain without power more than nine months after the storm.
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